MOVIE NEWS – The upcoming film adaptation of Stephen King’s The Running Man dives into a bleak near future, where a popular form of mass entertainment allows anyone in the world to hunt down and kill a game show contestant—live on air. Glen Powell plays the everyman protagonist, who volunteers for this deadly competition in hopes of winning money to treat his sick daughter. Powell already proved himself in hits like Twisters and Anyone But You, but there’s another reason why he was a natural choice for this role.

“Glen became our go-to guy because he trained at the Tom Cruise school of action,” explained producer Simon Kinberg. “They worked together on Top Gun: Maverick and trained side by side, which was like a boot camp. Glen learned that when a motorcycle stunt calls for a big fall, you take the fall—yourself, not the stunt double. Tom Cruise always does his own stunts, and that was hugely inspiring. In The Running Man, Glen runs, jumps, fights—he does it all himself. That’s what he learned and what he’s committed to. And yeah, he even took pilot lessons because of Top Gun, though we won’t need that in this film.”

The Running Man – release date: November 13, 2026